The 20th session of the UN Human Rights Council will convene on Monday. Below find a selection of country-specific and other noteworthy resolutions the Human Rights Council is expected to consider. UN Watch will provide regular updates on the HRC session in this space.
Country Resolutions
- The Council will hear from the Commission of Inquiry on Syria which will provide an update on their activities and a report on the El Houla events as mandated at the Council’s Special Session of 1 June. A resolution should follow.
- The Council will hear a report by the High Commissioner on the human rights situation in Belarus. The resolution that will follow will likely establish a Special Rapporteur to monitor the situation in the country. Last year’s resolution on this issue –the first since the Council’s creation in 2007– was passed by a vote of 21 to 5. China, Cuba, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Russia voted against the resolution. Nineteen nations abstained.
- The Council will review report by the High Commissioner on the flotilla incident, which may be followed by a resolution. Last year, the United States called for a vote on this resolution and voted no.
Noteworthy Thematic Resolutions
- Cultural Rights (Cuba)
- Foreign Debt (Cuba)
- Last year, the US and eighteen other states opposed it, but the resolution passed with support from thirty states and three abstentions.
- Right to Peace (Cuba)
- Last year’s resolution passed 32 to 14. Linked to a report by the Advisory Committee which includes the provision that “All peoples and individuals have the right to resist and oppose oppressive colonial, foreign occupation or dictatorial domination.” UN experts worry that this can be understood as legitimizing terrorism.
- LGBT rights
- An historic resolution was passed in June of 2011. It is unclear whether there will be a follow-up resolution at this session.
- Violence Against Women (Canada)
- Trafficking of Persons and Remedies for Victims (Germany and the Philippines)
- Right to Nationality (United States of America)
- Arbitrary Deprecation of Citizenship (Russia)
- Communication Technologies and Human Rights (Sweden)
